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I keep a small sealed ammo box in the trunk of my car with a backup box or two of my usual calibers in case I'm at the range and decide to shoot more than I intended when I left the house. Most is range ammo but I also keep a couple magazines loaded with HST JHPs, you know, just in case.
Summer/winter temps in Kansas can vary by 100° or more.
Something tells me this probably isn't a great idea but I'd like input that's more than just speculation.
I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.
Im interested to know if theres any definitive info about cold in particular. We know heat slowly degrades primers and powder, but it seems consistent within the lot or batch. Someone years ago stored some 22 ammo in their attic for some number of years (10?), they had chrono info on it when fresh, then checked it after it being there a long time. It was all a bit slower, but had the same general spread of velocity deviation.
Ive seen comments speculating about cold causing condensation in ammo, but cartridges are sealed airtight, I think whatever moisture could condense would already have to be present in the cartridge. So, other than slower velocity when actually still cold, is there any negative effect on ammo of cold?
Ive left ammo (mainly reloads other than 22s) in vehicles all year, in some cases for many years and never had any failures to fire nor weird inconsistent sounding reports when fired. Some I still had 20-some years later and shot with no problems. It was subjected to cold more than heat.
I do recall someone writing they left lead bullet reloads on the dash of their vehicle in the summer and had problems, but the bullets were oriented upwards, meaning the bullet lube melted and ran down into the powder, which was the diagnosis when broken down.
Well I was a deputy sheriff and firearms instructor for almost 30 years. I learned cops of any flavor hoard ammo and keep it in their cars, forever.
Here in WV the outside temperature swings from the teens in the winter to high 90°s in the summer. Below zero and above 100° are not unheard of. The only ammo that I ever saw that seemed damaged (other than corrosion) was plastic shotgun shells that had gone fat probably due to riding around in a tube magazine in a hot cruiser.
One Captain who was also a firearms instructor called me about 8 years after he retired “Rick, I’ve got some .38 reloads from when we taught with revolvers. Do you want it?” He then met me with a duty bag so full of funky .38Spl 158gr wadcutters from the mid 80’s that he could barely lift it. I took them to the range and if anyone showed up with a snubby for off duty qualification we gave them free ammo. I don’t remember any problems with that stuff which had obviously spent a decade or two in his trunk.
While I don't have a definitive answer based on science I have a few things I do to help mitigate problems. Keep in mind I live in SE Texas so I don't know much about cold (until a few days ago).
If at all possible get nickle plated brass. I have found these to resist a lot more than plain old brass. Keep your stuff out of the direct sunlight if possible. In the trunk is best if that's an option. It will be substantially cooler even on the hottest of days there. If you put mags in the car and leave it for long periods of time it's a good idea to rotate the ammo from time to time (like once a year) and to actually function test the mag itself just as much as you do with the ammo. Extreme hot and cold (depending on the brand of the mag in question) can cause issues. Again keeping something in the trunk of your car is different than leaving it in your door panel.
Another thing is stuff like humidity is probably one of the biggest things (at least for me). If you live really close to the ocean you might have other issues. Keeping ammo stored in sealed bag helps tremendously. Before I would use those food sealer bags and put however much ammo in those and then suck all the air out and seal it. That works pretty good for actual storage but even putting it in an ammo can will help resist the elements a great deal. You might not think of it as 'elements' because it's in your car but if you live near the ocean (IE salt water) or in places prone to really high humidity it can become an issue.
Before I had a console vault in my previous vehicle and that thing was worth it's weight in gold. You can store ammo inside of that along with all of your valuables or whatever else you can fit in there.
It really just depends on the type of ammo and how much of it you are keeping in your car and where in the car specifically we are talking about.
As is often the case, getting a hard answer is not so easy.
I asked a manufacturer’s rep some years ago what a "cool dry place" was where ammo is supposed to be stored. He told me it shouldn't be stored in direct sunlight or under water....
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The majority of my ammo and components are stored in a detached workshop with no climate control. Temps can range from the teens to over one hundred degrees.
Never had a problem with CF ammo in thirty years of this type of storage.
I shot some 40 year old Remington Golden Bullet .22 LR out of my G44 a few weeks ago and had misfires galore. Unknown if the temperature swings had anything to do with that. I have shot some thirty five year old Federal Lightning stored the same way through a Henry LA .22 with no issues.
I was given about 120 rounds of .30M2 from the WWII era and a handful of .30 Springfield WW1 issue rounds dated 1917 on brass strippers about ten years ago that were found in an attic. One of my projects is to see if they will actually fire properly through my Garand when I feel like stripping it down for cleaning since all this ammo is corrosive primed.
I bought some circa 1970 Lake City M1 carbine ammo about five years ago at a gun show. The boxes and ammo were pristine in appearance. I've put 100 rounds of it through my 1944 vintage Underwood carbine without any issues. It's actually been more reliable than the PPU stuff I have. The LC ammo seems to have a little more pop to it than the PPU; wish I'd bought more.
This is certainly the case on this subject.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tokarev
There are all sorts of warnings from all sorts of sources about only storing ammo at room temperatures in dry places, no doubt that is a good practice. However for modern domestic ammo with non-chlorate primers I have never observed a serious problem. My personally observed extreme examples:
-I loaded some .308 match ammo in 1986, Federal standard rifle primers, IMR 4895, Sierra 168gr bullets, stored in a USGI ammo can. Put it in a place in my barn where I had forgotten about it. No AC, no heat, 100+ degree summers and many winters with temps down in the teens at times. 35 years of those seasons. I found it around the first of last year, took it out and shot it and chrono'ed it. Same 2600 fps average as when it was new, all 400 rounds fired perfectly, same accuracy level I would have expected when they were new. No impact at all.
-Same place in the barn, a second ammo can of .45 ACP stuff including about 200 rounds of UMC 230gr ball ammo, same vintage, had probably been there since the late 80's, same temperature extremes, chrono'ed 820 fps and all ran perfectly last summer as I used it up.
-A friend helping a widow clean out her deceased husbands basement found 3 boxes of 1917 production .45 ACP GI ammo from Frankford Arsenal, cupronickel bullets, two boxes full and one was partial, definitely collector stuff, some case corrossion but not severe. Stored we believe for 95 years in this guy's basement we guess, but who knows. We had to know, pulled 7 rounds and fired them. All functioned perfectly, chrono average was about 775 fps.
-Bad, some Turkish made 8mm mauser from the 1940's, multiple hang fires, some South American 7mm Mauser from the 50's, same, some hang fires, some misfires, in both cases it was stuff made with corrosive chlorate primers, Bredan of course.
-Bad, some RP .38 special ammo, probably 60's vintage, that was stored outside any container and the factory boxes got wet, very visible and heavy case corrosion and bullet oxidation, some with so much corrosion that they would no longer fit in chambers, several misfires.
So I don't doubt there are mechanisms and types of ammo based on the powder or primer that can go bad. I have no evidence of modern, US domestic, post 1960 ammo going bad from just the temperature storage conditions, or without visible corrosion, or without repeated chambering that caused the primer cookie to crumble. But maybe somebody has evidence of it.